Weekend Pirates Draft Prospects Preview: 2/24-2/26

If there’s one thing you can say about Keith Law, it’s that he is consistent about being inconsistent. When I say inconsistent, I mean in relation to other rankings. Everyone’s rankings are different, but Law is usually in a whole different stratosphere with his lists. That’s nothing to knock. If everyone was supposed to think the same way, there would be no need for multiple outlets providing rankings.

Law released his top 50 draft prospects for the 2012 season. A few names are in the area you’d expect, but there are also some surprises.

Take Mark Appel, for example. Appel is the consensus top prospect in the draft. Well, not quite. While Baseball America and Jonathan Mayo have him first overall, Law ranks him third. Ahead of him are Byron Buxton at number one and Lucas Giolito at number two.

Another surprise is the ranking of Carlos Correa at number seven. Correa is regarded as an excellent defensive shortstop, but this is the highest I’ve seen him placed. I can’t say I’d disagree with the ranking. If the Pirates took Correa with the eighth pick, it wouldn’t be a bad selection. But I don’t really subscribe to the theory that there’s always a huge gap between someone ranked number eight and someone ranked 16th.

Perhaps the two biggest surprises were the rankings of Chris Beck (30th) and Victor Roache (45th). Beck, a top pitching prospect, was rated 7th by Baseball America and 8th by Mayo. Roache was rated 9th by Baseball America and 10th by Mayo.

If things went according to Law’s rankings, the Pirates would be getting Roache with their compensation pick, after landing the best left handed prep pitcher in the draft, Max Fried, with their first pick.

Last weekend the 2012 college baseball season kicked off. This weekend the high school season gets underway. It’s harder to get high school results. The only player I’m expecting to follow is Valencia third baseman Trey Williams, and that’s only because of Valencia’s history of uploading game results. Below is the schedule for this weekend.

Tim Williams

Tim is the owner and editor in chief of Pirates Prospects. He started the site in January 2009, and turned it into his full time job during the 2011 season. Prior to starting Pirates Prospects, Tim worked with AccuScore.com, providing MLB, NHL, and NFL coverage to various national media outlets, including ESPN Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Sports, and the Wall Street Journal. He also writes the annual Prospect Guide, which is sold through the site. Tim lives in Bradenton, where he provides live coverage all year of Spring Training, mini camp, instructs, the Bradenton Marauders, and the GCL Pirates.